The Rainforests - Rainforest Information

The Rainforests are the most natural, beautiful, diverse places on this Earth.
They are home to many rare birds, plants and animals, contributing around 50 to 80% of
the species on this Earth. Today it is termed as. 'The Lungs of the Earth' and two thousand
years ago, 'The Gardens of Eden'. Within the last forty years we as a whole have managed
to destroy seventy percent of these Ancient Forests.

It takes an average of 300-500 years for a tree to firmly establish its roots with a
maximum height for some of the trees reaching 200ft you can easily see why it takes this
long and yet minutes to burn. With the size of Wales being destroyed each year
for products such as toilet paper, newspaper, writing paper and furniture, the forests are
looking more like deserts than the greenery it once was. So where are these forests that
we hear so much about, below is a list of them all, many now have been cultivated for land
to graze cattle, for roads and of course felled for their timber.

Whats the difference between Rainforests and other forests?

Latitude and rainfall distinguish tropical forests from temperate (or moderate climate)
forests which are found in warm climates but not too hot to be called tropical. Temperate
forests are at ground elevation, mainly in North America, Europe and cooler Australasia.
There are many types : deciduous woodland, coniferous woodland, Mediterranean woodland
and temperate rainforest.

All tropical rainforests lie between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. They receive
more water, being in the monsoon regions. There are many different kinds of rainforest :
tropical evergreen, tropical moist deciduous, cloud forest, lowland rainforest and peaty
swamp forest.

Rainforests may grow in thin and sterile soil. This is achieved by ample sunlight and water,
and nutrients from decaying plant matter. In the warm damp conditions, dead plants rapidly
decay and by bacterial or microbial action, the nutrients are released.

The forests are a closed ecosystem where everything is recycled but once these forests are
opened, the decaying matter is cleared, the moist conditions disappear and slowly the
forest cannot sustain itself.

Where are the Rainforests of the World?

What is the purpose of the Forests?

The main purpose of the forests is to act as the breathing apparatus for the world's climate.
If you can imagine, take away all forms of air pollution, and picture the forests before man
had stumbled on them and you have a natural environment; the forests, growing more and
more lush as each decade that passes.

Photo supplied by Ann Walker

Then bang, along comes the Industrial Age that falls upon the world and as travel becomes easier, man makes more
and more discoveries outside his own domain, seeing the rainforests as a giant playground which will
provide the world with products such as wood for furniture and paper, without destroying their own
resources. (Japan and Europe being the largest markets for tropical hardwoods figures from 1992, show
12 to 15 million cubic tonnes of timber a year being shipped to these areas). After all nobody would
miss the wood here!Medicine was another product the forest provided (mentioned later).

So as companies moved into providing furniture for our luxury, the trees were felled without one thought
of what would go so horribly wrong. Now because of this greed and commercialism, this once perfect
oasis now becomes as extinct as the wildlife that thrived there. Without this breathing apparatus,
the air we breathe now fills with fumes from the Industrial Age we so welcomed.

But what of the
technicalities of the 'Lungs of the Earth'? As the Earth is producing more carbon dioxide from usages
such as cars, planes boats, power stations, incinerators and with population growing, the levels are much higher.
So where does this carbon dioxide go? At a normal rate and with the forests being left untouched or
sustained, the poison is sucked up by the trees and the trees then emit oxygen. As we sleep at night the
Earth wakes us with fresh air. Perfect and simple. NO. Now with the forests STILL being destroyed at the
rate of the size of a football pitch each second, we are destroying the one thing that holds the Earth in
balance. If this continues within the next few years, our oxygen supplier will no longer wake us with the
fresh air we take so much for granted.

What life do the Rainforests' support?

As mentioned above the forests support 50-80% of species on the Earth. Ecuador and South America has
between 15,000 and 20,000 plant species, whereas in the whole of Europe has 13,000. In Southeast Asia
there are 656 mammals, 850 amphibians and 700 butterflies. In Peru, 530 species of birds can be found.
To get an idea of the enormity of life that the rainforests supports we have listed as many as we can
find, below :

It is astonishing to think that of all the drugs we consume today most of the common ones are derived from
the rainforests, even more astonishing is that only a small amount of the total number of plants have been screened
for medical use. The following is a list of drugs that the plants have provided a basis for : the
contraceptive pill, antibiotics, tranquillisers, dental cement, heart and ulcer drugs. In fact one in
four products from the chemist contain chemical compounds derived from rainforest plants.
70% of anti cancer plants originate from the rainforests and the US National Cancer Institute identified
3,000 plants with properties in fighting cancer.

From 1960-1990, the survival rate for child leukaemia
rose from 20% to 80% when 'The Rosy Periwinkle' plant from Madagascar played a major contribution in
fighting this form of cancer. The Cinchona tree from Peru has been effective in treating malaria; the
Guatemalan wild yam is a major contribution to the effectiveness of the contraceptive pill; Resperine
from South East Asia, from the shrub Rauwlfia Serpentina is used for treating hypertension. Cement used
in dentistry comes from the balsams of Latin America. And the 'Benzoin Tree' of Malaysia produces a yellow
substance that is used for antiseptic and to treat bronchitis. This is the Earth's own medicine cabinet with
many more cures for illnesses hidden within the forests.

With the pharmaceutical companies making
billions of pounds and dollars each year, it seems that it is in their interest that the forests no longer
survive, but the forests provided the basis for all of man's drugs and we should start preserving them now.

What happens to Forests that are burnt down?

Photo courtesy by RIC

Forests that are burnt will not resume their previous life again as the ground is not fertile enough and nothing will grow; it will be like a house gutted after a fire. As if this was not enough the heavy rains that hit the forests that normally receives up to 200 centimetres a year will sit on the ground and flood the area causing mud and land slides.

In 1988 the great floods of Thailand alerted the government of the dangers and implications of forest clearing. A study carried out in the Ivory Coast region found that in a landslide, a forested slope lost 0.03 tons per hectare per year where as a deforested
slope lost 138 tons of soil per hectare per year. You can also add to this the carbon dioxide that is released into the air when forests are burnt.

Based on a 1992 study, figures showed 15-20% of carbon dioxide was emitted into the air and ten years later, you can double that and add the emissions caused by the Industrial Age and its fossil fuels and you are pushing the percentage higher and higher. Within the next five to ten years, if the forests continue to be destroyed and emissions are not cut drastically, we will see such diverse weather patterns like never before, pushing highs up to 150 degrees with famine, drought and disease, and this is only the beginning...

References

The Green Guide by Angela Smyth & Caroline Wheater
Tropical Rainforests of the World by Rupert O. Matthews
Battle For The Planet by Andre Singer